Seal of the Governor
For Immediate Release: July 11, 2018
Contacts: Office of the Governor: Ofirah Yheskel, Ofirah.Yheskel@governor.virginia.gov

Governor Northam Announces SAIC to Create 75 New Jobs in Richmond, Retain Over 400 Employees Across the Commonwealth

Marks second jobs announcement with SAIC under new contract

RICHMOND—Governor Ralph Northam today announced that the Virginia Information Technologies Agency’s (VITA) contract with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) will create approximately 75 new information technology (IT) jobs in downtown Richmond and retain over 400 jobs in existing locations across the Commonwealth. As of today, 170 people have accepted offers to join SAIC and 243 job offers are in process.

Governor Northam made today’s announcement at an open house held by SAIC at the company’s new offices in the James Center. In May, Governor Northam announced SAIC would hire 40 people in Clintwood, Dickenson County, to provide service desk responses to more than 56,000 state employees. Some of the Clintwood jobs will be filled by employees retained from the current infrastructure provider’s help desk staff and some will be new hires.

“These employees are the backbone of our infrastructure services. Some were state employees before they joined the current infrastructure provider more than a decade ago, so they have extensive knowledge that will be important for the upgrades VITA is planning for our state IT infrastructure, and they can keep operations running smoothly during the transition,” said Governor Northam. “I thank SAIC for recognizing the valuable experience of our existing state employees and for its commitment to creating new job opportunities with this new contract.”

VITA oversees IT services, cybersecurity, and governance for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Commonwealth is moving from one IT infrastructure provider with a long-term contract to multiple suppliers with shorter contracts.

“VITA, its employees, and suppliers have the important task of providing technology services to state agencies which in turn, have the essential duty of serving citizens and businesses across the Commonwealth.” said Secretary of Administration Keyanna Conner. “VITA’s services support our state employees who perform critical and often life-saving work—serving in law enforcement, hospitals, and correctional facilities, caring for our children and the elderly, and conducting the routine business of state government.”

“We are pleased that SAIC will retain a significant number of employees working for the current provider while also committing to create new, high-paying jobs in the City of Richmond,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. “Today’s announcement is a testament to the world-class workforce we have in the Richmond metro area. We look forward to supporting SAIC in its hiring efforts.”

Nelson Moe, Chief Information Officer of the Commonwealth, who serves as agency head at VITA, said, “This new multisourcing environment will be more agile, permit us to take advantage of market rates, and offer the opportunity to enhance services to state executive branch agencies.”

“SAIC is excited to expand into downtown Richmond, which will provide VITA’s state agency customers additional accessibility to the team supporting critical missions,” said SAIC’s Chief Operating Officer Nazzic Keene. “We look forward to building upon our strong relationship with the state and appreciate Governor Northam’s and Mayor Levar Stoney’s support. Their economic development teams enabled us to quickly establish our operations, ensuring our ability to closely assist VITA with their ongoing mission of providing superior quality technology services to the Commonwealth.”

SAIC was selected through the state procurement process to serve as VITA’s multisourced services integrator (MSI), which means the company will coordinate efforts of several suppliers providing IT infrastructure services. Those include messaging, mainframe, security, end-user, server/storage, and voice/video/network suppliers. VITA will continue to provide governance and oversight of the MSI as it coordinates, monitors and reports on IT infrastructure services.

Headquartered in Reston with approximately 15,000 employees nationwide, SAIC is a premier technology integrator in the technical, engineering, intelligence and enterprise IT markets. SAIC currently has more than 3,000 employees in Virginia focused on major projects in Stafford County, Dahlgren, and Hampton Roads with the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense. Among its other high-profile customers are NASA, the State Department, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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